After our essentially virtual season last year, it came as a welcome surprise to see a keen bunch of athletes at our team info session in September. With over 20 members, our practice turnout has never been better. This camaraderie is especially nice when you train in Raincouver, where getting soaked is a given with every outdoor workout. Along with our past athletes, we have some (almost too) speedy rookies who are making us senior racers a little nervous, but we’re glad to have more people to champion intervals with.
This year was the first that UBC instituted a fall reading break, but we figured that if we travelled far enough to find snow, we could make it a winter reading break instead.
For five days in November, the team loaded our gear into cars and headed to Sovereign lake near Vernon, B.C. for our first training camp. With a total of twelve athletes, we had a great week of skiing on beautiful trails, including some memorable sunset runs and a time trial held on the last day. We also strengthened some athlete rivalries through a team-wide game of assassin. We’re excited to see how those dramas play out this racing season…
Our drive home, which was slated to be about 6 hours, became a 12-hour escapade with multiple reroutes thanks to the torrential downpours of November 14th in B.C.. Looking back, we’re thankful that all cars were able to make it through safely, as the Coquihalla highway closed the next day due to flooding damage.
In other news, we congratulate our athlete Michael Murdoch, who competed in the Western Canada Cup #3-4 at Sovereign lake on December 11th and 12th. Mike placed 15th in the 10k classic (interval start) Open Men category on Saturday and 17th in the 15k skate on Sunday (Mass start), taking home the gold in the CCUNC category on Saturday. We thought he looked pretty fast in his UBC suit too. 
Before the holiday break, we managed to fit in one more team social. Hosted by Katia, the team got together to decorate cookies and have a white elephant gift exchange. Despite most of us being busy with exams, it was a great way to relax and say goodbye before most athletes left Vancouver for the holidays. 
In the new year, the team is excited to get in some on-snow training together in preparation for our first race in Whistler. Although we remain cautious as provincial COVID-19 cases climb, we are excited either way to get outside safely and have fun, whatever that may look like for us!